In this blog I will do a write-up on what's new with SAP HANA SPS09. The first major visible change is that there are now several what's new documents. On help.sap.com this change is also seen, we now have options. Here a list to all new "What's New ..." documents.
- What's New in SAP HANA Platform
- What's New in SAP HANA Dynamic Tiering
- What's New in SAP HANA Real-Time Replication
- What's New in SAP HANA Smart Data Streaming
- What's New in SAP HANA Advanced Data Processing
- What's New in SAP HANA Enterprise Information Management
- What's New in SAP HANA Predictive
- What's New in SAP HANA Spatial
Edit 17 December 2014: Added SAP HANA Rollout material from hana.sap.com
The SAP HANA Product Management team has created a nice 'What's new in SPS09' blog with delta SPS08 to SPS09 presentations. There are also several detail prsentations on the changes between SPS08 and SPS09. I will give you an overview list from all the delta documents over on the hana.sap.com website. There is more What's New information than in my blog, So a must read!!
As you can see SAP HANA SPS09 contains may new features. The new features and enhancements for the SAP HANA platform are described in the Whats's New in SAP HANA Platform document.
SAP HANA also provides additional features which are on top of the SAP HANA Platform. These options introduce additional functions that can be used together with the SAP HANA base edition. These additional options have their own "What's New ..." guides. The usage of these options is based on dedicated SAP HANA option licenses.
So What's New in the SAP HANA Platform?
In the SAP HANA Platform there are also nice new features. I will focus on the SAP HANA System Administration topics, as that is my area of expertise. It also gives others in this forum the opportunity to give their view on What's New in the other areas. So here is my list of What's new:
SAP HANA Multitenant Database Containers (MDC)
SAP HANA SPS09 supports multiple isolated databases or Multitenant Database Containers in a single SAP HANA system for on-premise MCOS (multiple components in one system) scenarios. All the databases in the same multiple-container system share the database software and system resources. Every database is self-contained and fully isolated from the other databases. Every container has its own database users, catalog, repository, persistence and so on.
SAP HANA Server Installation and Update
- The installation tool hdblcm(gui) is able to install the SAP HANA as a multi-container system or a single-container system.
- If you have a single-container system this can be migrated to a multi-container system. The other way around is not possible.
- The database content is installed in a tenant database on creation time. If you upgrade a SAP HANA system, then the new content is automatically updated from the system database.
- the SAP HANA database lifecycle manager (HDBLCM) is responsible for performing all platform lifecycle management tasks. The SAP HANA lifecycle managment is no longer supported.
- The SAP HANA database lifecycle manager has a command line interface, graphical user interface and a Web user interface.
- SAP HANA Answers is bundled with SAP HANA Studio,
SAP HANA Cross-Database Access
With SAP HANA SPS09 it's now possible to perform cross-database read queries between multitenant databases. This means that database objects such as tables and views can be local to one database but be read by users from other databases in the same system. This is very useful for cross-application reporting in MCOS scenarios.
SAP HANA Security
All user authentication mechanisms supported by SAP HANA are also supported in tenant databases. If it's possible to configure the authentication mechanism per database depends on the user client and the authentication mechanism. Per database configuration is possible for:
- User name/password authentication.
- SAML-based authentication for JDBC/ODBC client access.
Authorization
SAP HANA's standard authorization mechanisms also apply for users in a tenant database. There are some additions:
- A new system privilege DATABASE ADMIN is availavle to allow system administrators to perform certain tasks on tenant databases. For example backup or stop a tenant database.
- A new cross-database authorization mechanism exists to support read-only queries between tenant databases. Cross-database access is disabled by default and must be enabled and configured before such user mappings can be set up.
Encryption
- SSL and TLS can separately be configured for external communication between individual databases and JDBC/ODBC clients. You need separate key stores and trust stores and configure them for each database. A per-database configuration of SSL keys and certificates is not possible for communication with HTTP clients.
- Data volume encryption is possible for the whole system or done per tenant databases individually.
- SAP's cryptographic library CommonCryptoLib is now installed by default as part of SAP HANA server installation
Auditing
Audit trails can be setup per tenant. The audit trails are written into a local database table of the tenant, this is to ensure the privacy of tenant database audit trails. There are several new audit events for tenant operations:
- Creation and dropping of tenant databases
- Stopping and starting of tenant databases
- Adding/Removal of services
Additional Security features
- Configuration change blacklist. This is to prevent tenant database administrators to change certain systems properties.
- Restricted features can be setup to prevent tenant database administrators to perform certain activities or task like direct file system or network access or for example export/import and backup functions.
- Application developers can use the SAP HANA XS JavaScript API $.security.Antivirus to integrate an antivirus engine with their XS applications.
SAP HANA System Administration
Starting with SAP HANA SPS09 there is a difference between system administration and T\tenant database administration.
- System administration
Administration tasks apply to the whole system. This includes all of its databases. These tasks are performed in the system database. These tasks include for example stopping the complete system and configuring system-level properties. - Tenant database administration
Administration tasks that apply to a specific tenant database. These tasks can be performed in the system database and/or the tenant database. These tasks as an example include creating, configuring, and monitoring tenant databases.
Client Connectivity
- From the SAP HANA Studio, SAP HANA Cockpit and DBA Cockpit it is possible to connect to the system database and tenant databases individually.
- Database-level connectivity support has been added to the client interfaces JDBC/ODBC and also to SAP HANA HDBSQL command line tool.
- The internal SAP Web Dispatcher can be configured to handle HTTP(S) requests from Web clients to specific databases.
Configuration of System Properties (INI Files)
- To be able to perform configuration on individual databases the layer DATABASE is added to the System configuration (*.ini) files.
- For tenant database parameter configuration can be restricted by maintaining the configuration change blacklist (multidb.ini).
- In SAP HANA Studio the Administration editor supports database-specific configuration of system properties files.
System Views for System Monitoring
All tenant databases have their own SYS and _SYS_STATISTICS schema's with only information about that tenant database. On system-level monitoring some additional views are available in the system database:
- M_DATABASES provides an overview of all tenant databases in the system and is located in the SYS schema of the system database. This view can only be accessed when you have the system privilege DATABASE ADMIN.
- SYS_DATABASES schema provides views that provide aggregated information from a sub-set of the views
available in the SYS schema of all tenant databases in the system. The views in the SYS_DATABASES schema are accessible only from the system database and you need the system privilege DATABASE ADMIN for this.
SAP HANA Cockpit
The SAP HANA cockpit is an SAP Fiori Launchpad site that provides you with a single point-of-access to a range of Web-based applications for the administration of SAP HANA. It is available at the following URL: http://<host>:80<instance>/sap/hana/admin/cockpit/
SAP Web Dispatcher
The previous standalone executable sapwebdisp_hdb is replaced by the internal Web Dispatcher of the SAP HANA system which is a native SAP HANA service called webdispatcher.
Availability and Scalability
System replication, for High availability and disaster recovery, is supported in systems that support multitenant database containers, but it can be configured only for the system as a whole.
Backup and recovery
The usual SAP HANA backup and recovery principles also apply to multitenant database containers.
- System administrators can initiate backups of both the system database and individual tenant databases.
- Tenant database administrators can back up their own tenant databases, as long as the backup feature has not been disabled for tenant databases.
- The system database and tenant databases have their own backup catalogs.
- Only system administrators can initiate recoveries from the system database.
- Database copy using 3rd party backup (Backint) tools
- The removal of a host/service is fully integrated into backup/recovery process, no need for manual steps any longer. There is also now UI support in SAP HANA Studio for removing services.
Edit 2 dec. 2014: Added info on SAP HANA Answers
SAP HANA Studio
- SAP HANA Answers is added and works out of the box by default.
To me all these new features and options give SAP HANA a good boost. Did I review all the new features and options in this quick review? No, there are plenty of other new options to blog about.
Edit 3 dec. 2014: Added info on SHINE
SAP HANA Interactieve Education (SHINE)
The SHINE has also been improved. The following apps were added:
- XS Data Services
- XS Unit Tests
- Full-text Search with SAPUI5, ODATA and CDS
The Spatial Demo app has a new heat-map function on product sales.
Have SAP HANA fun!!
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